State’s black bears are booming big-time, says data by wildlife research team

June 11, 2008

If you read the article “Bearing South” in the spring edition of CALS’ Grow magazine, you might recall that the state Department of Natural Resources was estimating that Wisconsin has about 13,000 black bears. Turns out that may be a bit low, suggests research by Tim Van Deelen and Dave McCallister, professor and grad student (respectively) in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology. After the most comprehensive “mark and recapture” study ever done on bears in the state, the pair now estimate the state’s bear population at about 26,000.